The letter alleged that the Indian government has actively worked to prop up the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina over the last decade.
Published Aug 10, 2024 | 2:02 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 10, 2024 | 2:02 PM
Bangladesh protests. (X)
As neighbouring Bangladesh is dealing with political instability following former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation, a group of writers from Dhaka, Bangladesh; Kathmandu, Nepal; and Colombo, Sri Lanka have addressed a strongly worded letter dated Friday, 9 August, to the Union government of India demanding the latter to stop interfering in their respective polities.
The group of writers, journalists and social activists are— Firdous Azim from Dhaka— Professor of English and a member of Naripokkho, Kanak Mani Dixit from Kathmandu— founding editor of Himal Southasian, Lakshman Gunasekara from Colombo—journalist, and social activist, Manzoor Hasan from Dhaka—Centre for Peace and Justice, BRAC, and Sushil Pyakurel from Kathmandu— former commissioner, National Human Rights Commission.
In the context of the momentous change in Bangladesh, the active citizens noted that over the decades, intervention by New Delhi’s political, bureaucratic and intelligence operatives in Colombo, Dhaka and Kathmandu, has contributed to the unending political instability in their countries and has empowered autocratic regimes.
Further claiming that the interference contradicts the Panchsheel principle of peaceful coexistence once advocated by India and belies the Narendra Modi Government’s much-publicised ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy, they said, it also compromises their socio-economic advancement.
“Furthermore, it is beneficial to India’s own interest in seeing South Asia as a whole achieve political stability and peace, which will in turn benefit India’s own economy and enhance its international standing,” the missive read.
The letter also alleged that the Indian government has actively worked to prop up the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina over the last decade and received political and economic concessions in return.
Following long student-led protests in Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina resigned as the prime minister and fled to India.
The missive while thanking India’s assistance at the time of Bangladesh’s liberation in 1971, claimed the Indian government had sought to guide Dhaka’s politics for its own purposes. “These include the diversion of river waters as the upper riparian state, access to the Indian Northeast through Bangladeshi territory, and the use of Bangladesh as a sizeable market for Indian goods.”
Speaking of Sri Lanka, the letter noted, “New Delhi’s interventionism in Sri Lanka peaked with the deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in the late 1980s, meant first and foremost to protect India’s ‘national interest’ amidst the Tamil insurgency.”
Further noting that Sri Lanka had to since then resist India’s encroachment in its politics time and again, said, “Lately New Delhi authorities have been actively pushing Indian business conglomerates onto the island.”
In 2022, a Lankan official alleged that the Indian Prime Minister pressured then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to award a power project to the Adani Group.
Coming to Nepal, the missive stated, India now intervenes “Through intelligence agencies and Hindutva activists of the RSS,” apart from the proactive politicians and diplomats.
It further read, “New Delhi has lately been engaged in manufacturing consent within Nepal’s polity in order to maintain control over Nepal’s water resources. A significant coercive action was the blockade imposed on Nepal in 2015, even as the country was reeling from an earthquake, following the promulgation of the Constitution that was not to New Delhi’s liking.”
The missive further accused the Indian government of moving from one folly to the other in terms of foreign policy. Noting that the interventionist plans ultimately fall as in the case of Bangladesh, it said, “Such interference creates layers of animosity against India that does not dissipate easily.”
It also noted, “In each of our countries, there exist politicians and political parties that put self-interest before national needs and have been receptive to New Delhi’s interventionist moves.”
Calling out the failure of India’s academia and media to not keep an independent watch on the government’s actions, the letter said, the media, “unquestioningly followes the dictates of the external affairs and home ministries.”
Attributing the repeated mistakes in neighbourhood policy to a lack of independent media, the missive suggested, “A rigorous and introspective study of its South Asia policy, including an evaluation of past misadventures, would benefit India and the entire Subcontinent.”
“India’s regional presence would be more benign if New Delhi were to view neighbouring countries through the eyes of its own border regions, peoples and economies.”
Dismissing the apprehensions that all the neighbouring countries are coordinating with China to encircle India, they demanded India must accept their sovereign right to deal with Beijing on its own accord, similar to how India does.
“We find it incongruous that China has become India’s largest trading partner even as New Delhi seeks to prevent the neighbours’ links with Beijing. We insist that Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are not and should not be in the sphere of influence of China, India or any other power, and that the alarm in New Delhi is misplaced.”
Also noting that the placement of the said countries around India gives rise to India’s vulnerability, the missive urged the Indian government to “Understand that our societies wish only the best for India, its government and people. Much of the public acrimony directed at India is but a reaction to New Delhi’s interference in internal affairs.”
Concluding the missive, the writers noted that the Maldives and Bhutan too suffer from New Delhi’s efforts to be the decisive player in their internal and external affairs.
“The hostility between Islamabad and New Delhi has been distressing and constant, and it impacts not only the societies and economies of South Asia’s two largest countries but also holds hostage the agenda of upliftment across all our countries.”
Urging New Delhi to contribute to stable polities and long-lasting peace in South Asia by abandoning its overt and covert interference in the internal affairs of its neighbours, the letter concluded, “India should be supportive of the democratic aspirations of South Asia’s peoples and let them build their individual paths to the future.”
(Edited by Sumavarsha Kandula)
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